Mac computers infected with nasty Trojan horse virus “Flashback”

Fresh off the news that more than 650,000 Mac computers have been infected with a nasty Trojan horse virus called “Flashback,” another Apple threat is on the prowl.

According to anti-virus software provider Kaspersky Lab, a Trojan called SabPub — or more formally, Backdoor.OSX.SabPub.a — has recently been spreading via Java and could be infecting computers when people open email messages with suspicious links that direct users to malware.

“The Flashback and the SabPub Trojans are totally different,” Alex Gostev, chief security expert of Kaspersky Lab, told Mashable. “SabPub is classic backdoor Trojan, so it opens full access to a victim’s system for attackers. 

Flashback and its known variants is downloader and clickjacking bot, which means it conducts click fraud scam by hijacking people’s search engine results inside their web browsers.”

Read details: Mashable

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Apple’s MobileMe Phishing Scam: Security Threat Via Email Spreading

[ via Chip Hazard ] 21 Dec

Looks like social engineers are all set to say “Merry Christmas”. According to latest reports, Apple’s MobileMe has been the latest victim of their phishing attacks.

The trick they (scammers, social engineers, whatever you want to call them) have chosen is quite old in the book. They send an email, trick you into revealing your login credentials, and hope you will fall for it. Though the trick seems somewhat hilarious, it works quite well then you can imagine. 

The worse part of the trick is that no amount of security (firewalls, anti-virus software, etc) can save you as the success or failure of the scam depends on you. Perhaps it is better to say that you are the weakest link in the security chain; if you fall, the whole security system proves worthless.

Read more at Chip Hazard

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Man-made mutant flu virus that can kill half the planet if released

[ via news ] 20 Dec

TWO scientific journals are debating whether to publish details of a man-made mutant flu virus that many fear could kill half the planet if it is released.

The report says that the US government paid scientists to figure out how the deadly bird flu virus could mutate to become a bigger threat to humans, then demanded virologists researching their work don't release full details of their success.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu is fatal in 60 per cent of human cases but only 350 people have so far died from the disease, largely because it cannot - yet - be transmitted between humans.

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